


Make No Assumptions

by Anoke



Series: Everybody Wants to Be a Cat [2]
Category: Wiedźmin | The Witcher (Video Game), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: (for infiltration purposes), (it's not Gezras), (post-mortem), Agender Character, Assassination, Brutal Murder, Canon-Typical Violence, Disguised As Another Gender, Dismemberment, Found Family, Gen, Kidnapping, Misgendering, Neopronouns, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Past Torture, Serial Killer, Standard Witcher Backstory Trauma, Threats of Rape/Non-Con, Violence, gender euphoria, mentions of child death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-15 15:41:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29438421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anoke/pseuds/Anoke
Summary: Castle Stygga has fallen, but that may not be the end of the Cat School.Gezras of Leyda takes the first contract of what will become the Dyn Marv caravan.
Series: Everybody Wants to Be a Cat [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2179314
Comments: 37
Kudos: 24





	1. Catnapping

**Author's Note:**

> First and foremost, about a million thank-yous to all the lovely people in my discord servers, especially the people who introduced me to this character to begin with and the ones who helped me out a _ton_ with writing this and coming up with titles and names, fact checking things, and generally being amazing.
> 
> So uh, happy Valentine’s Day? Have a fic about a brand new favorite character of mine?
> 
> If anyone's wondering who the hell Gezras is, please have a read through the [wiki entry](https://witcher.fandom.com/wiki/Gezras_of_Leyda); I'm going to be referencing events in there. Essentially Gezras is a half-elven kid who was sold to Stygga Castle by dear old dad, was experimented on by the mages there, woke up under a pile of corpses, rescued the remaining living kids from that round of experimentation (who the mages were going to kill and dissect/vivisect), joined up with a group of Aen Seidhe guerrillas, spent several years with them, returned to Stygga Castle around when it was sacked by soldiers of Ebbing to kill all the mages in their sleep, and took the remaining Cats north and founded the Dyn Marv caravan, eventually becoming Grandmaster of the the School of the Cats.
> 
> Okay, if you're still with me, one, thank you for your curiosity in this random side character who has shot up my list of favorites to a place near Lambert, and two, there's a couple other things…
> 
> I headcanon Gezras as being agender, and I decided to kitbash some Elder Speech to come up with a set of pronouns. In my universe, these are just slightly archaic Elder singular gender-neutral pronouns:
> 
> ae (used like he/she/they, singular, so it's “ae is” not “ae are”)  
> aer (him/his/her/them)  
> aers (his/hers/theirs)  
> aerséy (himself/herself/themselves)
> 
> Gezras has problems with being touched/restrained, due to that whole "buried under a pile of corpses" thing. Ae's also a sadist and rather inured to violence, but that has nothing to do with aer actual mental illness.
> 
> I'm interested in but currently holding off on writing a prequel to this about Gezras' time with the Aen Seidhe, and there's a couple of references to people who would/will be showing up in that prequel. Ytanwe, Samraiche, Isilion, and Ealonwe are all Aen Seidhe that the oldest five Cats here were living with, and Celso was another mutated kid who was originally with Gezras, Lev, and Conell when they escaped. Celso died during puberty due to something going wrong with the mutation-fueled bodily changes during that time period.
> 
> And finally, this group will eventually become Cat Witchers, but that's not how the oldest five were raised and it's not how they consider themselves just yet.  
> \---  
> Please also check the end notes for content warnings, there are several.

They had been traveling for about a week so far: Gezras, aer siblings, the surviving post-Trials trainees from Stygga, and unmutated children all. Gezras hadn't wanted to take the unmutated children with them at first, but ae’d overheard the soldiers of Ebbing talking about their orders—they clearly weren't used to mutated hearing—and ae wasn't about to let children be slaughtered for merely having been given or sold to Stygga.

There weren't many children to look after. Gezras hadn't been able to pretend that it was a change of heart in the people of the Continent. The corpse pile had had too many fresh additions.

Rescuing the youngest as well as the trainees had forced Gezras to change aer plans; ae'd sent Lev and Alcide into a nearby town after the battle with what few trade goods they had to exchange for a wagon and team. Luckily, there’d been one available, and they’d been on the move ever since. No use in waiting to see if the soldiers would be ordered to chase down the ones who’d escaped, and it would be poor payment to bring that potential wrath down on Ytanwe, Samraiche, Isilion, Ealonwe, and all the others after all they’d done for aer and aer siblings. 

Unfortunately, wagon travel was _boring_ ; Gezras and aer siblings had nearly come to blows over a number of squabbles. Furthermore, for some reason the littles had decided ae was interesting. There were always small eyes watching aer. Really, Gezras didn’t get it. It wasn’t as if ae had been the one to collect them from their rooms; ae had been collecting as many papers and other records from the labs as ae could before setting the rest aflame. Seeing the diagrams from the autopsies among the papers had made aer skin crawl and set red creeping in at the edges of aer eyes, but they _needed_ the information on what might go wrong, to keep anyone else from dying like Celso had.

Conell just laughed when Gezras bitched about the way the littles tried to hang off of aer at every opportunity.

“You may not have gone in and grabbed them in the night, but you’re clearly the leader of our merry little band, and you’re the one who’s been turning most of the monsters that attack us into paste,” Conell said.

Gezras blinked in confusion. “I do that because I’m going nuts just sitting around or walking alongside the wagon.”

“They don’t know that,” Conell said. “To them, you’re mysterious and strong and protecting them. Of course the bold ones are going to try and jump you at every opportunity.”

"Little monsters," Gezras grumbled, but ae also felt strangely warm. Protecting people. Ae’d been focused on vengeance for so long that ae hadn’t thought of it.

* * *

They were a couple of days past Mettina when Gereon came up to Gezras and told aer they had to make a stop in a town of some kind.

“I know it’s dangerous, but we need more supplies, Gezras,” he said.

“ _Fuck,_ ” Gezras spat, but Gereon wasn’t wrong. They weren’t doing badly on food, and the Aen Seidhe had taught them enough about dh'oine metabolism that they had a good supply of child-friendly herbs, but they needed more clothes, and shoes, and tools to repair wagons and weapons and armor, and better fodder for the donkeys pulling the wagon, and probably half a dozen or more other things Gezras was forgetting.

“The kids could use some actual practice weapons too, if we can get them,” Gereon added, teasingly.

Gezras growled and punched Gereon in the arm. The littles had kept trying to imitate aer while ae was practicing, and ae hadn’t been about to let them do it wrong and hurt themselves. To aer mild annoyance, this had turned into organized combat lessons for trainees and children, and at that point, Lev had started in on alchemy and Alcide on monsters and tracking and Conell on meditation and the two oldest trainees on Signs for everyone who could use them and they were basically training Witchers all over again. Gezras wasn’t really sure how to think about that. Ae never wanted to put more people through the horrific experimentation ae had been through, but the children who had already been mutated might as well learn how to use their skills, and the littles should at least learn how to protect themselves.

Gezras had to stalk off for a while to work off aer frustration, but ae gathered aer siblings and the two eldest trainees, Miroslav and Ennio, after everyone younger was in bed for the night.

“Gereon was right,” ae said. “We need to get more supplies, and that means stopping in a town of some kind. Miroslav, Ennio, we need you to help on guard duty; Alcide and Gereon are going to be scouting for a place where we can get what we need.”

Alcide gave Gezras a look at that. He’d heard what ae hadn’t said, that they would acquire what they needed by whatever means necessary. Gezras just raised a brow. It wasn’t as though they hadn’t attacked small towns before, with the Aen Seidhe; if they didn’t have enough to trade for everything they needed, it wasn’t like they had many other options.

“We’ll start tomorrow,” Alcide said.

* * *

It was four days and one attack by nekkers later—Ennio had a new scar, courtesy of a warrior that Miroslav had gutted a moment later, but everyone else emerged unscathed—that Gereon returned to say he’d found a place they might be able to get supplies.

“It’s a pretty small village of Aen Seidhe and mixed-bloods a day’s travel west of here,” he told the rest of them that evening. “What’s more, they’re jumpy, and if I’m guessing right, there’s a lot less women than there should be. If we can deal with whatever problem they’re having, we can probably get a better deal on the goods we need.”

Alcide nodded. “Between the seven of us, we should be able to handle any monster problems.”

Gezras wasn’t happy with the idea of taking the littles into the village itself, but in the end practicality won out. They left the wagon near the outskirts with Alcide, Miroslav, Ennio, and all the littles; the village wasn’t large enough to have a true inn, so they were going to need to camp anyways. Aen Seidhe stared as Gezras, Lev, Conell, and Gereon walked into town in plain clothes, trying to prevent a panic among the villagers over seeing armed and armored warriors. Gereon was right; Gezras saw almost no women among the villagers, and the few there were looked like dh'oine to Gezras.

“Something’s definitely wrong,” ae said, quietly enough that only the others would be able to hear.

They all made noises of acknowledgement. After a minute of looking, Gezras spotted an Aen Seidhe man whose elaborate embroidery marked him as somebody important and veered towards him.

“Greetings,” Gezras said in Hen Llinge, once they were close enough. “Would you happen to be the alderman of this village?”

The man looked startled at first but relaxed a fraction after glancing at Gezras’ face. Probably he had noticed aer ears.

“I am,” he confirmed. “Seachail is my name. What brings a group of— individuals such as yourselves here?”

Gezras licked aer lips. “Castle Stygga has fallen. We’re traveling north with the survivors, and we need to trade for supplies.”

Seachail’s jaw dropped. “Fallen?”

“After a siege, by the soldiers of Ebbing,” Gezras said. “We got the children out, but all the adults save us and three more with the littles are dead.”

Seachail’s eyes flicked from face to face, assessing. “You’re all quite young for Witchers, aren’t you?”

“No less skilled for it,” Gezras said cooly. “And it looks like you have a problem.”

“That we do, but I don’t know if it’s one you would help with,” Seachail said.

“That’s for us to decide,” Gezras replied, crossing aer arms.

The Aen Sidhe man sighed. “Well enough. I’m sure you’ve noticed, we— our women—”

“There are almost none,” Gereon interjected. “Do you know what happened to them?”

“We don’t know exactly what that _monster_ does,” Seachail spat, after a surprised glance at Gereon. “But a lord whose men take comely women to him, who never return— we can guess _._ ”

Gezras was incapable of stifling aer snarl, and ae heard one of the others suck in a breath. Ae also noticed Seachail’s flinch at the noise, and dug aer nails into aer palm to shift aer focus away from the rage.

“But we’re not rich,” Seachail said, eyeing Gezras warily. “We can’t afford to pay you, not as much as Witchers charge.”

Gezras took several deep breaths, trying to dip towards aer meditative state enough to speak without snarling.

“That depends,” Conall said after a moment, when Gezras still didn’t speak. “We need goods more than we need money right now. Tell us about this lord of yours and what you can afford, and we’ll consider it.”

Gezras let the others talk about what the village could afford to give them. Ae didn’t really care about it; ae already wanted this lord to die. They could get supplies elsewhere, if necessary.

Ae did pay close attention when Seachail was describing the abductions; the lord’s men had been coming by every few months, for various asinine reasons, and kidnapping women when they left. Specifically women who _looked_ Aen Seidhe. Seachail and the other elders of the village hadn’t seen the kidnappings, but the women had disappeared when the lord’s men had left, and it didn’t take a genius to make the connection. They had sent a small envoy to the king, but their hopes hadn’t been high and hadn’t even been met; the king hadn’t bothered to lift a hand even to investigate, not caring about the people in his hills and highlands. The villagers hadn’t attacked the lord’s men yet, a lack of spine which Gezras almost sneered at, but ae knew how powerful fear of retaliation could be.

After what felt like far too much talk about possible payment, Gereon thanked Seachail and told him they would have an answer for him tomorrow, and they left. Gezras kept quiet until they were completely out of earshot, then snarled “ _We’re taking it._ ”

Lev nodded. “We’re taking it.”

Gereon sighed, but without any actual disappointment. “I think we can even get most of what we need out of it, without impairing them unduly.”

“Next question; how are we going to do this?” Conell said. “We’ll have to stake out the lord’s keep, learn guard patterns—”

That set off another discussion, which Gezras didn’t participate in, too busy considering an idea.

“Gezras?” Lev asked after a while. “What are you thinking?”

“These dh'oine steal people who look like Aen Seidhe women,” Gezras said slowly, and reached a hand up to trace over the pointed tip of aer ear. “And they’re probably delivering them directly to their lord.”

“Gezras…” Conell said warily.

“They’re due to come back soon,” Gezras continued. “They could deliver their lord’s doom right to him.”

“Gezras—” Gereon said. “How would you get _out_?”

Gezras looked at him, unimpressed. “Gereon, if there’s one thing I’m good at…”

Gereon looked down, clearly embarrassed.

“You’d be more or less completely alone,” Lev said. “And we don’t know what might happen on the way in.”

Gezas gave him another annoyed look. “We need to be able to do things on our own,” ae said. “And this is a chance to nip this in the bud before any more Aen Seidhe die.”

“If you get yourself killed, Gezras, everyone’s going to end up stabbing each other inside of a month, and it might not be by accident,” Conall said.

Gezras snorted. “If I get killed, I’ll come back as a wraith and stab you all first, how’s that?”

“Well that solves _all_ our problems,” Lev said, laughing.

Gezras smirked and they continued back to the wagon in slightly higher spirits.

“Oh,” Ennio said when they informed him and the other two about their plans. “Uh, maybe do you want to use some socks to, uh...”

Gezras tilted aer head at the kid, who looked down but made a groping motion at his chest.

“Oh hell, that might be something to consider,” Alcide said. “Too bad Conell can’t do it, he’s got good enough tits on his own.”

Conell spluttered a little, and Gezras smirked. That particular bit of will-we-won’t-we looked like it was going well.

“Wouldn’t socks get kinda— squished?” Miroslav said. “Maybe turnips?”

Gezras leaned back against the wagon, feeling a spark of glee, as four heads whipped around to stare at the poor boy. This was going to be _fun._

After aer siblings were done stripping the two youngest to the bone, they spent at least ten minutes debating what _they_ thought would be the best method to fake breasts. The arguments grew steadily more heated and drew the eyes of more and more of the littles as Gezras watched with mounting amusement. One good thing about having the awe of the children meant that all Gezras had to do was put a finger to aer lips to denote silence and none of them were willing to disobey aer and interrupt.

“I mean, _I’ve_ felt—”

“No you haven’t, Lev,” Conell snapped. “And even if we _had_ gelatin, it breaks up if you squish it, that would wreck the shape.”

“I think a grain might—” 

“That’s going to come across as _even weirder_ if someone touches it!” Conell snarled, looking genuinely roused.

_Ah well, fun while it lasted,_ Gezras thought, and pushed off the wagon. Ae walked calmly into the middle of the little knot of snarling Witchers, throwing a casual elbow into Gereon’s side and shoving a hand up under Conell’s jaw, shutting his mouth with a click of his teeth. Those two had kept the fight going when it might have otherwise simmered down, and as funny as Gezras had found it, it wasn’t something ae should encourage.

“Hilarious as this has been to watch,” ae purred, “I rather think it’s ultimately _my_ decision. And if I _need_ to improvise a bust, I’m going to use sand.”

Everyone was still visibly on edge, but Gezras had interrupted at exactly the right time; none of them were willing to push it. They all broke up to go meditate for a little while, except for Gezras, who went off far enough into the woods that ae could barely hear the camp, stuffed aer forearm into aer mouth, and collapsed into laughter.

When ae got back to camp, everyone was much calmer, and ae thought ae saw a little smile at the corner of Conell’s mouth.

Gereon coughed self-consciously and walked over. “Apologies, Gezras. Is there anything you _do_ need from us?”

Gezras waved a hand, brushing the apology aside. “Mostly what I need from you is weapons. There’ll be clothes and facepaint in the village, I’m sure, but at the moment I don’t know what I’ll be able to hide on me.”

Gereon nodded. “I’ll tell everyone to collect what they have.”

Gezras nodded and headed over to the fire to get supper started.

Seachail was tentatively pleased by the news that they would take the contract when they arrived the next morning, Gezras freshly scrubbed via use of the nearby stream, but he was halfway to dismayed when Gezras announced the rest of the plan.

“The idea is to prevent more deaths, correct?” Gezras finally asked, extremely annoyed. “The humans will be showing up looking for another woman soon. We can solve this _right now._ ”

Seachail looked at Gezras for a long moment. “Pardon me,” he eventually said. “We are not used to others valuing our lives.”

Gezras huffed out a breath, but let aer shoulders drop.

“I’ll ask everyone who can bear it to gather the belongings of the missing. You can make your selections from them.”

Gezras nodded and leaned against a wall to wait.

* * *

There were. A _lot_ of dead women. Gezras stared at the clothes that Conell and Lev had carried in, the ones the families in the village had given for aer to pick from, and had to clench aer fist again.

_Their clothes had been piled in bins next to the lab and they’d all been shepherded in as bare as they’d been born—_

“ _Fuck,_ ” Gezras spat, and whirled away to look at something else.

“Gezras?” Lev asked.

“Just—” ae started.

“Yeah,” said Conell. “Want us to find some that might work for you?”

Ae took a deep breath. It wasn’t right to make Lev and Conell go through the clothes. It wouldn’t be right to make Gereon or Alcide go through them either. They’d all been through that. They’d all seen what was left of the ones who hadn’t made it.

“No,” ae said out loud, and turned back. “I’ll look. I’ll kill their murderer just the same.”

Conell and Lev didn’t touch aer, which ae was thankful for, but Conell moved a little closer, until ae could feel the heat of his body on aer side, and Lev moved to watch the door of the house, and that was— good. 

Some of the clothes just weren’t the right size—too short, too long, made for someone with a _much_ larger chest than ae had—and ae set those aside, carefully re-folding them. Ae set aside the dresses as well, since short of cutting slits in the sides ae wouldn’t be able to get at anything strapped to aer legs without _far_ too much movement. 

The next consideration was picking something ae actually looked good in. Most people tried to wear clothes that they liked when they could, and ae wanted to stand out in a way that would make the dh'oine grab aer instead of trying for someone else.

A lot of the skirts were reddish in color, and ae moved those to the reject pile. Red tended to make aer look even more like a corpse. Of the couple that were left… Ae picked up the dark blue one and held it up. It looked like it would fit.

“Looks nice with your hair,” Conell said.

Gezras blinked at him but let a smile twitch at the corner of aer mouth, and set the blue skirt down on a chair.

Most of the shirts would work just fine, but ae was— _drawn_ to one with purple and yellow flower embroidery. Ae ran a finger along the delicate stitching.

“Must be a family heirloom of sorts,” ae said quietly.

Conall took a closer look and whistled. “Damn, that’s a nice color. That must have been _expensive_.”

Gezras hummed tunelessly and put the shirt down with the skirt. The coats were mostly sensible colors, but there was a nice brown one that would go with the shirt and skirt. All the petticoats were undyed too, so that was really just picking one that would tie right. 

Outfit selected, ae started to strip, handing aer clothes to Conell. Time to figure out what ae could smuggle in with aerséy.

Gezras had used some bandaging to make sure aer cock was tucked out of the way already, and ae was going to be wearing aer own shift, so ae opened the bag of weapons Lev had carried and started strapping things on. Unfortunately, even before Gezras finished putting everything in place, ae realized that most of it just wasn’t going to be concealable, especially not if anyone was manhandling aer.

Gezras growled a little and started taking off the arm knives and the one meant to sit at the small of aer back. The boot knife should hopefully be fine. Ae could _probably_ put two small knives at aer inner thighs; both the skirt and the petticoat were fairly heavy wool, so unless someone pulled up aer skirt, they probably wouldn’t be noticed. After a bit more thought, Gezras gently disassembled a necklace and strung the beads on a bit of tough cord.

“Conell,” Gezras said, as ae stashed a loop of wire in the bandages. “I’m going to need you to help me.”

“What with?” Conell asked, a little wary.

“Seeing if you can feel any of these while carrying me off,” ae said grimly. 

Conell swore very quietly. Gezras couldn’t help but agree with the sentiment. 

“Maybe we could use Alcide’s buckle knife to fasten the coat?” Conell asked, holding up the belt and knife in question.

“Maybe,” Gezras said. “Let’s see if you can feel the other knives before we start making alterations to this, though.”

Conell nodded and Gezras started getting dressed. Ae pulled on the shirt and tugged until it lined up properly, then pulled on and tied the petticoat, tucking aer shirt and shift in. Gezras turned a little, swishing the petticoat to make sure it wasn’t going to fall. The sight of the hem swirling was a little mesmerizing, actually— ae’d realized ae wasn’t a man a while back, but ae’d never bothered trying on skirts before. The skirt went on easily enough over the petticoat, and stayed in place while Gezras moved around a bit, to make sure ae wouldn’t trip.

Gezras looked up to see Conell and Lev looking at aer. Ae tipped aer head, raising a brow.

“You look good,” Lev said.

Gezras smiled slightly and pulled on the coat, pinning it closed and pulling on a belt to hang a purse and a knife from. The last step was a small round cap with a veil that ae carefully arranged to expose aer ears.

“Right,” ae said. “I’m saving paint for after we test this.”

“Do you want to test it outside?” Lev asked. “Just in case?”

Gezras considered. “Probably we should.”

They relocated to a half-concealed spot behind Seachail’s house, and Gezras rolled aer shoulders and took a couple deep breaths. Conell looked almost as nervous as ae felt, which was comforting in its own strange way.

“The grabbing is probably going to be a little unexpected,” Lev said after a few minutes.

“Right,” Conell said with a grimace. “Gezras, if you really need me to let go—”

“Bloede dherienn, most likely,” Gezras said. “Or if I start really hurting you.”

Conell nodded, took several steps forward, and grabbed Gezras in a bear hug. Ae stomped on the impulse to rend Conell limb from limb, and kept aer struggles minimal.

“Feels mostly like grabbing a non-Witcher,” Conell said. “If you can keep to about that level, I don’t think they’ll notice anything wrong.”

“Shoulder carry me and see if you can feel the knives,” Gezras demanded.

Conell obeyed and hoisted Gezras up. Gezras went limp for a moment as Conell adjusted his hold a few times.

“Can’t feel them unless I really jam my hand, uh, in between your thighs,” Conell eventually said. “It’s not really an easy grab through a skirt, though, so I don’t think you should forego them for that.” 

Conell let go as he finished speaking, and Gezras slid down and hopped back a couple of steps, tugging disarrayed garments back into place.

“Right,” ae said. “Let’s go see about facepaint.”

* * *

Since they didn’t know when the dh’oine were going to show, Gezras more or less moved into the village. Ae _hated_ it, and was honestly a little surprised by how much. Part of it, of course, was that ae was an outsider and a mutant, alone among people who knew each other well. But ae was also a little startled by how much ae didn’t want to stay in one place. As boring as wagon travel was, it was still travel, still seeing new places and keeping on the move, and even Ytanwe’s group had shifted camp regularly to keep ahead of vengeful dh’oine and soldiers sent after them. The village was more or less the same sorts of things every day, and it was driving aer nuts. Ae couldn’t even go kill monsters or spar with aer siblings, since they couldn’t let the dh’oine think there was anything unusual about the village. Blessedly, there had been an empty house available; ae _probably_ wouldn’t have been able to live in the same space as a bunch of strangers, Aen Seidhe or not.

Gezras was just finishing up aer face paint one morning, adding kohl on top of the foundational stuff ae had used to fill in aer scar, when ae heard a commotion coming from outdoors. Ae quickly finished the line ae’d been drawing and pulled on aer hat before striding over to the door to peer outside.

_Aha_ , ae thought, seeing two figures in blue gambesons strolling into town. _The dh’oine have arrived._

Gezras stayed where ae was, a hopefully-tantalizing glimpse of what the dh’oine were here for, until ae was certain they had spotted aer. Ae jerked back and shut the door, and listened carefully through it to the dh’oine snickering. Good.

It wasn’t too difficult to continue to let the two continue to catch sight of aer over the course of the day as ae went about expected chores. Ae was careful not to let them get too long or too good a look; ae knew that a flash of color or movement drew more attention and created more curiosity than a full display. The skirts were unexpectedly fun to play with, too— ae was enjoying sending the fabric spinning, nearly as much for the feel of the wool swirling about aer legs as for the tempting lure.

When Gezras noticed the dh’oine actively trailing after aer, ae knew ae had them hooked. Ae stifled a smirk and pretended ae hadn’t noticed them; they were far enough back that if ae wasn’t a mutant, ae might not have. Now all ae needed to do was give them the opportunity.

In the end, it was dead simple. Gezras collected a bucket and headed down to the creek to haul water. Dusk was just starting to creep in, and it was perfectly reasonable that ae might need more water for cooking at this time of day. The sound of the creek would have covered the noises of the dh’oine’s approach, if ae hadn’t been a mutant, and ae was as prepared as ae was going to get for the arms that wrapped around aer and the hand that covered aer nose and mouth.

Gezras put up a good show of struggling like mad. To be fair, ae wasn’t entirely faking aer distress— ae still _hated_ being restrained. Ae did have enough calm to spare to wonder how they were planning to ‘incapacitate’ aer; that was answered almost immediately, as the other dh’oine stepped into view holding a small flask. Gezras dilated aer pupils fully, turning the dusk as bright as midafternoon, to keep the dh’oine from noticing anything unusual about aer eyes. The two had the routine down; about when a nonmutant would desperately need to take a breath, the dh’oine holding aer shifted to only pinching aer nose and the one with the flask shoved it into aer mouth.

Gezras let aerséy choke on the very slightly sweet liquid. Most likely it was some kind of nightshade, which would be an extremely convenient excuse for how dilated aer pupils were. Ae continued struggling for several minutes, acting like ae was trying to scream, but then let aerséy slump over with a moan. The dh’oine with the flask grabbed aer chin and tilted aer face up, looking into aer eyes.

“It’s working,” he said. “Tie her up and let’s get out of here.”

Gezras forced aerséy to remain mostly limp through the dh’oine gagging aer with aer own veil, tying aer arms behind aer back, and removing aer necklace and belt, along with aer purse and knife. The dh’oine holding aer hauled aer up and onto his shoulder, grunting loudly, while his partner inspected the contents of aer purse and the quality of aer knife.

“Fuck, this treelicker is heavy,” the dh’oine lifting aer grunted, and Gezras barely stopped aerséy from tensing.

“Or you were just getting fat at your new posting,” sneered the other, barely looking up from aer looting, and Gezras groaned again, relief and act in one.

The two dh'oine didn't have to carry Gezras too far; they had a small cart waiting. Ae was dumped none-too-gently into it, and the dh’oine started moving. Gezras let aerséy slide into a nearly meditative state, occasionally shifting or making some noise to keep up the pretense of being drugged into a stupor. At one point, hearing something moving ahead, ae sat up and nearly spilled over the side of the cart. The dh’oine muscled aer back into it with quite a lot of cursing, and whatever had been out there had moved on by the time they had aer back in place.

_You’re welcome,_ Gezras thought sardonically.

After a couple of hours, when the moon was starting to rise in the sky, the dh’oine pulled off the road they had been following and set about making camp. Gezras had been shifting more and more as the night had marched on, and shortly after other essentials had been taken care of, aer gag was temporarily removed and another dilution of nightshade and a skin of water were forced down aer throat. Ae faked all the necessary reactions, and eventually lay there quietly, feigning unconsciousness or sleep.

The dh’oine built up a small fire and sprawled near it, grumbling discontentedly.

“All the work of hauling ‘em back to His Lordship’s manor, and never a thing we get out of it,” one complained.

“The extra coin isn’t enough for ya?” the other asked.

The first one snorted. “What good’s coin when the nearest whorehouse is leagues away? S’not as if we’re off long enough to go get a good plough in.”

There was a nasty laugh. “That’s just ‘cause no woman wants to be seen with a pig like you. Too bad you can’t do as my lord does!”

The contemplative silence after that statement sent a chill down Gezras’ spine. _Fuck_ , Gezras thought. Ae hadn’t anticipated this, but ae should have. The task of kidnapping victims wasn’t the sort that would be given to dh’oine much less monstrous than their master.

“An’ what if I do?” the first dh’oine said. “It’s not as if he cares about keepin’ ‘em whole himself. What’ll he care if we have a… sample, as it were?”

Gezras frantically ran through aer options in aer head. It wasn’t as if ae couldn’t kill the pair, but the point of this farce was to have them bring aer to aer target. And ae couldn’t just let them go ahead with it, because even if it weren’t for the knives, ae rather definitively did not have the anatomy they were expecting. But maybe there was _one_ out.

Gezras wasn't particularly good at Signs—none of them were, a consequence of not having had anyone experienced to teach them—but ae'd been practicing, and maybe— ae formed Axii, and tried to cast it as wide as ae could.

Both the dh'oine slumped slightly, then lifted their heads again with even more slack-jawed expressions than before.

"Better not touch the girl, His Lordship might get angry," Gezras murmured, moving as little as possible, trying to make aer voice come from everywhere and nowhere.

"Actually…" said the first one, "we'd better not touch the girl."

"Yeah, good idea," muttered the other. “Don’t want to upset my lord.”

Gezras wasn't so careless as to sigh, but ae let out a careful breath of relief all the same.

The rest of the night passed without further incident. Both the dh’oine fell asleep at one point, which cemented Gezras’ opinion of their stupidity, but allowed aer to sneak off a little ways to relieve aerséy (as much as ae could; ae wasn’t entirely unaffected by the nightshade) and to stretch aer legs a little. It said a lot that the dh’oine hadn’t bothered to do any of this for their captive themselves, or untie aer arms so that ae could move them out of the position behind aer back. Gezras wasn’t too badly affected by it, but a non-mutant would probably be in severe pain by now. Ae hadn’t been expecting that any of the kidnapped women were still living, but this was really just further confirmation. Ae wasn’t about to let stiffness keep aer from being effective, though, so ae stretched aer arms as well, as best as ae could. Eventually the pins and needles faded, and Gezras returned before either dh’oine started to stir, and mediated until morning.

* * *

When the dh’oine paused the next day to throw a square of canvas over Gezras, still lying flat in the cart, ae knew they were getting close. Ae was almost grateful for it; keeping aer pupils fully blown in the bright sunlight had been giving aer a headache. Sure enough, before too much time had passed, ae could hear dh’oine calling to each other, animals calling, all the clank and clatter of a settlement. Scents filtered in as well shortly after: smoke from all the fires that most people kept going constantly, livestock and their waste, refuse, all the sundry smells that ae associated with people gathering in one spot. The two dh’oine transporting aer skirted the center of all the activity. Probably they were heading for a less public entrance.

Gezras’ suspicion was confirmed when they came to a halt and a voice said “You're back early.”

“We were lucky,” half-snickered one of Gezras’ ostensible captors. “We got a good deal.”

Gezras, lying still under the canvas, barely refrained from rolling aer eyes. The stupidity was what had gotten aer this far, but it was annoying all the same. The gate guard, or whatever he was, grunted, and the cart started moving again. 

Eventually they came to a stop again, in what smelled like a stable. Gezras was bundled up in the canvas and picked up again. Ae had a bad moment when the canvas wrapped tight around aer, but ae managed to keep it to only a couple of thrashes, instead of tearing free.

“We’re almost there, milady,” the dh’oine carrying aer said tauntingly.

_Indeed we are,_ Gezras thought.


	2. Ceiling Cat is Watching You Exsanguinate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! I'm finally done with this! I have no idea how this became 11k total, but I'm not gonna complain.
> 
> Check the end notes for some warnings

Gezras did aer best to pay attention where ae was being carried. It wasn’t a particularly long trip, consisting of a few minutes of walking, heading through a door and down a set of stairs, then more walking and a locked door. Gezras was carried into space behind the door and dumped unceremoniously onto a stone floor. Ae cried out through aer gag in feigned shock and pain, and listened as the two dh’oine laughed and moved around the room, lighting candles by the way things became brighter, even behind the canvas.

 _Laugh while you can,_ Gezras thought. _I’ll be seeing you two later._

They unwrapped aer from the canvas, ignoring aer flinches and whimpers, and tied aer to a standing rack in the center of the room. Gezras kept up aer act until the two left, locking the door and taking the canvas with them, then relaxed as much as ae was able, finally letting aer pupils contract, and looked around the room.

The first thing that caught aer attention was an oblong shape directly across from aer, against the far wall, covered in a heavy cloth. Gezras peered at it for a long moment, trying to figure out what it might be, but ae couldn’t think of anything. Apart from that one bit of cloth, the space was all rough-cut stone, floor and walls, with a downright unusual number of candle sconces for what might have otherwise been an empty basement storage room. Conversely, there wasn’t a single decorative hanging or floor mat, even the simplest of woven-reed ones. Furniture was scarce as well; there was the rack Gezras was tied to, a heavy chair with attached cuffs, a solid table, also with cuffs, and a huge barrel—filled with water?—with a bucket sitting on it within aer view. Ae twisted around to look behind aerséy and scowled, seeing a neat little table and a metal brazier. The table had a number of instruments on it; Gezras saw a small knotted flail, a couple of small, sharp knives, a number of needles, and some small metal rods that looked like they would fit into the brazier. Gezras wasn’t been sure what ae had been expecting in the way of torture impliments, but this probably wouldn’t have made aer top few guesses. This looked more like someone who had _specialized._

The tools and the room _looked_ clean enough, but Gezras could smell old blood and waste coming from somewhere. Ae looked around a second time, and aer eye caught on a dark spot just visible around the edges of the cloth-covered object. Gezras dilated aer eyes a little more, frowning, and realized the spot was a massive drain. 

Well. That would be where the smell was coming from.

The bareness of the room did present something of a challenge, as far as places Gezras might be able to hide in, but ae did not particularly want to figure out if ae could get loose before aer target could damage aer enough to matter.

Gezras looked up at the ropes holding aer to the frame ae was tied to. Ae could potentially haul aerséy up long enough to pull a knife, but given aer success last night… Aer Igni ate through the fibers like they weren’t even there, and Gezras grinned in success around aer gag. Ae shoved the remains of the rope and the poor sodden veil that had served as aer gag down the drain and moved aer thigh knives to more accessible positions on aer arms before investigating the barrel in the room. It did in fact contain water, and smelled clean enough; Gezras gratefully drank aer fill from it and took a minute to stretch out all aer cramped muscles.

 _Now,_ Gezras thought. _Where’s my best ambush point?_

* * *

Gezras heard aer target approaching a couple hours later. Ae doused the lights, made sure ae was in position, and pulled a knife free from its sheath. The sturdy door to the room opened slowly, letting in some flickering light from a torch the nobleman must have been carrying. Ae heard the noise of surprise the nobleman made when he noticed the room was dark and his victim wasn’t in sight. The dh’oine recovered quickly enough, stepping completely into the room and—ha—locking the door behind himself.

“I see my little bird has gotten out of her jesses. But I don’t think she’s escaped her cage just yet,” the dh’oine crooned, sickly sweet.

Gezras just let aer grin grow. The dh’oine would realize his mistake soon enough.

“Now where’s my songbird hiding?” the nobleman asked, taking a couple of further steps into the room. “Do I perhaps see some little boots poking out from behind my mirror?”

Gezras raised an eyebrow. A mirror as big as the cloth shape would be _expensive._

“Or perhaps you’ve left your shoes as a distraction,” the dh’oine continued, pulling the cloth from the oblong shape with a flourish. “Hoping I’ll turn my back to the water barrel long enough for you to stab me?”

Gezras couldn’t resist the opening. Ae leaped from aer braced position in the corner of the room near the ceiling, landing square on the dh’oine’s back, knocking him hard to the floor and sending the torch flying. Gezras smelled blood, likely from the nobleman’s nose or mouth, and rapidly bound the dh’oine’s hands behind his back with the bandages ae had been wearing and flipped him over. Ae wanted to see his face for this.

The nobleman moaned in pain as Gezras flipped him— it looked like he’d broken his nose _and_ chipped a few teeth when his face had made contact with the floor.

“If you actually had some mats in here, you might not have broken the teeth,” Gezras purred, trailing aer knife down the side of the dh’oine’s face. “Though I suppose it’s not going to matter soon enough.”

The dh’oine blinked a few times, trying to focus his eyes. Gezras let a smirk cross aer face when se saw the lord’s eyes finally lock onto aers. Only moments later, ae caught the rank scent of fear-sweat.

“Master Witcher,” the nobleman garbled around his broken teeth. “I, I must— apologize, for any insult I’ve offered you.”

“Mmm,” Gezras hummed, still smirking. “And what insult do you think that might be?”

The dh’oine’s eyes flicked around frantically. “Several, Master Witcher— wasting your time, assault on your person, any verbal insults offered— Please, allow me to make it up in some way— I have coin, perhaps we could ah, come to an agreeable alternate arrangement.”

Gezras hummed thoughtfully, tapping aer knife against the dh’oine’s cheekbone, reveling in the slight flinch every time it approached his eye.

“I suppose I can forgive you for those,” ae drawled, still smiling.

“Wonderful!” the lord said, trying to smile. “If you could let me up, I can give you the contents of my purse, perhaps even proceed to my study if there’s not enough for compensation for your time—”

“I’m afraid not, _dh’oine,_ ” Gezras hissed, dropping aer smile. “Your insult to me I will forgive, but any _apology_ for the deaths of the Aen Seidhe women you tortured I refuse.”

The dh’oine opened his mouth, probably to yell for help, and Gezras slit his throat, blinking as the blood sprayed into aer face and onto aer coat. Ae was careful to only sever one of the carotid arteries in addition to cutting more or less completely through the trachea, so ae got to watch the dh’oine try desperately to wriggle free of his bonds or to stem the spurts of blood for the minute or so it took him to fall unconscious.

Gezras got up off of the dh’oine and cut the other artery just for certainty’s sake, then wiped off aer blade and hands on a clean spot on the dh’oine’s clothing. The lord expired as Gezras was making sure ae wasn’t going to leave bloody handprints everywhere, and ae wrinkled aer nose slightly at the smell. It wasn’t unusual for the bowels to loose at death, but Gezras had never quite gotten used to it.

Gezras removed the knives strapped to aer arms and pulled off aer coat, which was probably going to end up with a stain even if ae rinsed it immediately, and was about to use it to wipe off aer face when ae caught a glimpse of movement in— ah, it _had_ been a huge full-length mirror behind the cloth. Gezras was caught for a moment by the image; softness and violence tied together. Ae _liked_ the skirts, liked the way they moved when ae walked or turned, and the sight of aer bare feet peeking out at the bottom, the way the dark blue looked against aer deathly-pale skin— the white of the shirt didn’t work as well, but the little embroidered flowers drew aer eye again. A drop of blood fell past the shirt, and Gezras followed its path in reverse, looking up into aer face, aer kohl-lined catlike eyes glimmering faintly out from the bright red splatter. Gezras’ hair wasn’t the same color as the blood, but it was nearly as bright, and seeing the tips of aer ears poking out through it made aer briefly wish ae had some ear cuffs like ae had seen on wealthy Aen Seidhe.

Gezras hadn’t seen aer reflection too many times, and ae had always figured aer indifference to aer looks was just— normal. Now, with a strange knot of warmth radiating out of aer chest, ae couldn’t help wondering if maybe ae hadn’t been wrong about that.

Another drop of blood falling reminded Gezras that ae still had things to do. Ae blotted aer face with the coat and headed over to the water barrel to rinse aer face and hands more thoroughly. The mirror was useful for making sure that there wasn’t any visible blood, though Gezras kept being momentarily distracted by aer reflection as well. 

When Gezras was clean, and had somewhat regretfully scrubbed off the kohl, ae headed back over to the noble, to collect the key to the room from his purse. As ae was taking off the belt, it occurred to aer that, if ae wanted to treat this like an actual contract of sorts, ae should probably bring back some form of proof that ae had killed the noble. Gezras didn’t think that the villagers would disbelieve aer, but it seemed like an appropriate formality. The Aen Seidhe had sometimes taken trophies or insignia from targets as well. Of course, Gezras probably wasn’t going to be able to sneak out of here with a dripping head… though, on the other hand, the lord _was_ wearing a signet ring, and the idea of removing the hand that had doubtless wielded the knife and the flail was an appealing one. Ae could take the lord’s belt and purse, wrap the hand in some of his own clothing…

Decision made, Gezras made short work of it, using aer knife to cut through the muscle and tendons at the wrist and cutting several long strips of cloth out of the dh’oine’s overcoat in preparation to wrap the hand. The purse had enough in it that Gezras probably wouldn’t be able to fit the hand in without repacking it carefully, so ae left the hand to leak for a bit and emptied the purse above it. Coins, a couple of handkerchiefs, a tiny box, sealing wax, a tiny pen and vial of ink, and a few small, folded sheets of paper. Gezras looked at the writing tools and the signet ring on the severed hand, and formed a plan.

It only took a moment to neatly fold the paper over and soften the wax in the still-burning torch enough to drip a blob of it onto the page. Gezras carefully pressed the signet ring to the wax, being sure not to drip any blood on the paper, and surveyed the results. Looked official enough.

Gezras tucked the ink, pen, and wax into the palm of the hand and closed it into a fist over them before wrapping the whole thing in the strips of cloth. They might be useful later, and it wasn’t as though they took up much room, wrapped in the hand as they were. The coin, of course, was very useful, and ae lined the bottom of the purse with it before fitting in the hand. The handkerchiefs were clean, and Gezras tucked them into aer waistband so there wouldn’t be any risk of getting blood on them. All that complete, ae picked up the little box. It was very nicely made, of delicately shaped silver with mother-of-inlay, and full of— Gezras took a cautious sniff of the powdered herbs inside and confirmed that they were a mild stimulant that was popular among dh’oine with money. Ae’d helped waylay shipments that had included it a time or two, and didn’t particularly care about it one way or another, but the box was nice and might be worth something, so ae tucked it back into the purse.

Gezras drew the purse closed, secured the belt around aer waist, and regretfully burned aer stained coat to ash with a couple of shots of Igni. Ae then pulled on aer socks and boots, after taking the wire garotte out of one of the shoes, strapped aer knives to aer arms again, extinguished the spluttering torch, and cautiously unlocked the door. 

The room turned out to be near the end of a long, undecorated hallway, spotted infrequently with sconces. None of them were lit, which suggested that the lord had come here more or less alone. Gezras stepped out into the hall and locked the door behind aer. After a moment of thought, ae threaded the key onto aer belt, more out of sheer spite than any attempt to delay discovery of the corpse—after all, if ae could find them, ae planned to create two more. Ae slunk down the hallway, working to make as little noise as possible. Just because there seemed to be nobody down here didn’t mean there wasn’t, or that nobody was within earshot.

Gezras was all the way to a set of stairs at the far end of the hall before ae heard anyone else. Ae couldn’t help the smile that crept over aer face as ae heard one of the dh’oine who’d kidnapped aer muttering to himself.

 _It does make sense,_ ae considered as ae padded softly up the stairs. _He trusted them enough to go kidnap women for him, of course he trusted them enough to stand watch while he tortured victims._

“Lucky bastard’s off canoodling his tavern wench, and I’m stuck here,” Gezras heard. “Place should be a whorehouse, given how often Harlen lets her girls fuck on duty.”

Gezras was able to get close behind the dh’oine without him noticing a thing, thanks to how loudly he was grumbling. It was the work of a moment to loop the garrote around his neck and pull it tight, even against the leather neckpiece he was wearing. The dh’oine made a terrible choking noise, trying ineffectually to get his fingers under the wire. Gezras just dragged him back into the stairwell, keeping up the pressure until he slumped, unconscious. Gezras let the dh’oine down to the floor and quickly stripped him, working quickly so that ae would be able to kill the dh’oine before he woke. It was a bit of a shame that he wouldn’t know who had killed him, but Gezras wasn’t _just_ taking revenge. Once the dh’oine was down to his shift, Gezras took a moment to break his neck and send the body sliding down the stairs, so that it wasn’t immediately obvious that he’d been killed.

The fit of the armor and livery wasn’t perfect, but Gezras managed to pad out the loosest-fitting parts with aer other clothes in addition to being able to stuff the noble’s purse into them, which pleased aer a fair bit. Ae’d been afraid ae would have to leave or burn the skirts and embroidered shirt. Gezras was also extremely pleased to finally have a sword, even if it was of pretty pathetic quality compared to aer usual Aen Seidhe steel. Probably there was no chance of picking up a silver blade as well, but hopefully the road back would be clear.

Disguise complete, sealed letter newly stashed in the guard’s purse, garrotte tucked up a sleeve, and pupils blown wider than ae would prefer, Gezras headed off into the hall beyond the stairwell like ae knew where ae was going. In aer experience, that was often enough to stop people from asking questions. Ae did pass by a few servants, but they all did their best to look away; Gezras made note of that. Working off of aer remembered path into the keep, Gezras eventually got aerséy out of the back halls and over to the stables, and from there ae could see the gates that led out to the town where, presumably, the other dh’oine would be.

Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained, and the longer ae idled, the more likely that someone would actually stop to question aer. Gezras broke into a light jog for the gate, digging out the sealed letter.

“Hey now,” one of the dh’oine on guard said.

“Important message to deliver, from my lord,” Gezras said, waving the paper and carefully pitching aer voice as low as ae could reasonably get it. “Told me to run.”

Gezras carefully watched the two guards look at each other from under the brim of aer hat. Ae could maybe Axii them if ae needed to, but ae didn’t want to count on that.

“Go ahead,” the first one said after a moment.

Gezras nodded to him and headed though, breaking into a jog again. Ae was listening _very hard_ to the sounds at the gate, because ae did _not_ want to end up taking an arrow to the back, and so ae heard the first dh’oine speak again.

“Sooner or later, you learn sometimes you just don’t want to know. I suggest figuring that out sooner.”

Gezras slowed out of the jog once ae was out of view of the gates but kept walking forward, trying aer best not to look uncomfortable. There were _so many dh’oine_. Walking, chattering, carrying goods or foodstuffs or hauling animals or carts along. The the air seemed almost solid with scents, unwashed bodies of both dh’oine and animals, waste on the streets and trash in the gutters, fires burning and food cooking— Gezras wasn’t sure what ae would do if someone bumped into aer, but thankfully everyone was taking care to stay out of aer way. Ae suspected that the uniform had something to do with that.

Gezras kept striding purposely down the main thoroughfare; there was likely to be at least one tavern in the center of things, just by the way settlements tended to grow. If it wasn’t the right one, ae could steal some clothes that would stand out less and search for Harlen’s place and the other dh’oine who had kidnapped aer. 

It took _far_ too long, by Gezras’ measure, to reach a large market square, crammed with stalls and lined with various shops. There _was_ a tavern there, with a rather crudely carved representation of a fox on its sign. Gezras headed for it. The interior was, if anything, even more raucous than the market square outside. There was a bard striking up a tune and dh’oine were calling for food and drink and catcalling the workers in the dim, smoke-filled air. Ae had to suppress a cough in the sudden fug. Gezras moved aside so that ae wasn’t blocking the door and heard someone yell for Harlen, and made note of the dh’oine who answered. 

_Bullseye._

Gezras strode over to Harlen, who did a bit of a double-take at aer before putting her hand on her hip.

“And what might you be here for?” she said, in the tones of someone who knew she wasn’t going to like what she heard.

“I think you know who I’m here for,” Gezras said, still pitching aer voice low. “His Lordship has another task for us.”

"They're upstairs, third door," Harlen said, with a twist to her mouth. "And leave Maggie out of this, whatever it is."

Gezras nodded and headed up. Ae didn't particularly care about the dh'oine's partner, but ae didn’t think ae’d be able to kill the two of them both bloodlessly and swiftly enough to prevent one or the other from being able to scream for help. Maggie could live, as long as she got out of the way.

Sure enough, there were noises Gezras associated with sex coming from behind the third door upstairs. Ae didn’t bother knocking. There was no point in giving the dh’oine enough time to think. It was simple for Gezras to reach through the hole in the door and shoot the bolt back, then throw open the door and stride in. The woman yelped as she saw Gezras—clearly she’d been too distracted to notice the light when ae’d moved the curtain behind the hole in the door to get at the bolt. Her partner cursed as she jerked away.

“Out,” Gezras growled at her. “Urgent message from His Lordship. We’re needed immediately.”

The woman looked like she might be about to protest, but Gezras snarled “ _Now,_ ” and she suddenly realized that she had places to be. She barely took the time to pull her dress back down as she dashed out into the hallway. Gezras closed the door behind her and made sure to slide the latch closed. That would give aer a little warning if someone tried to interrupt.

“Son of a bitch, what does he need _me_ for?” the dh’oine groused, turning around to grab his trousers from the floor. 

Gezras had aer garrote out and around his neck in a flash.

“Strictly speaking,” ae purred into the dh’oine’s ear, “He doesn’t. I just thought I’d get rid of three murderous dh’oine in one go.”

The dh’oine flailed for a few moments before slumping into unconsciousness. Gezras took a bit of a chance and used the garrote to break the dh’oine’s neck, high up so that it killed him more or less immediately, then let the body down to the floor and started changing clothes _again_. These at least fit better, and the dh'oine had even had a somewhat shapeless cap that nevertheless fit over aer ears. Aer original clothes and supplies ae swiftly wrapped in the bedsheet, folding the cloth over and trying the corners to turn it into a carry-sack. The sword and belt Gezras took in hand; ae wanted a longer weapon, but getting through the tiny window in the room was going to be easier without it on. Ae gave the room one last look to make sure ae wasn’t leaving anything important behind, then squeezed out of the window and dropped carefully to the yard below before disappearing into the gathering dusk.

* * *

The trip back was extremely uneventful. Gezras just walked out the gate of the town and headed down the road ae remembered coming in by, keeping track of the direction by the stars. Ae kept walking the whole night; it was safer to keep moving than to stop and sleep or meditate, and ae wanted to bring word back to aer siblings and the Aen Seidhe village as quickly as possible. Thankfully, too, it was still early in the year, and it was cool enough that Gezras had had to poke the things held in the nobleman’s locked fist out from the side before ae walked into Seachail’s house and dumped the hand on his table.

Seachail looked a little green, and Gezras blinked at him. Had he not been expecting aer to succeed? Or was he thinking of something else?

“I killed him,” Gezras said, gesturing, “And the two men who kidnapped me. I don’t know if he had anyone else who knew for sure what he was doing or where he was getting victims from…?”

Seachail swallowed, and Gezras waited another moment in silence before continuing.

“I did my best to make sure that nobody saw an Aen Seidhe around, but if anyone else knew what he was up to, you might have to look out for reprisals.” 

Seachail swallowed again and closed his eyes. “Indeed. We were already debating if we could flee, so this is— not unexpected. We are not unprepared.”

“Good,” Gezras said. “I would offer to let you travel with us for a time, but… more people are easier to track.”

“You have done more than enough for us,” Seachail said, and if Gezras couldn’t help bristling a little at the words the tone was inoffensive enough. “Bring your people into town tomorrow, and we will have your supplies ready.”

Gezras nodded and turned to leave, only pausing as ae reached the door. “I— the clothes I borrowed,” ae started.

Seachail looked at aer for a moment, and ae saw something click in his expression. 

“They were given freely,” Seachail said with a small smile, “and with no expectation of return. Truth be told, I would rather they are used, hopefully in happiness, than gathering dust in a trunk in hopes that this old elf has a miracle occur someday.”

Gezras nodded slowly and walked out, hearing a small clatter and a curse as Seachail knocked something—possibly the hand—to the ground.

“Gezras!” Conell called happily when he noticed aer walking back into camp. “How’d it go?”

“Very well,” Gezras said with a smirk, letting aer shoulder bump against Conell. “I already spoke to Seachail, he says he should have the supplies ready by tomorrow.”

“Oh come on,” Lev said. “You must have a better story than that.”

“I do,” Gezras drawled. “But I’m not telling it now. Try me at dinner.” Ae deliberately yawned.

There was a small chorus of groans, not just from Lev but as many of the littles who were in earshot as well.

“And if anyone wakes me, I’ll be making mittens out of their skin,” Gezras growled, lunging forward and not quite laughing as children who’d been sneaking closer bolted like rabbits, giggling all the way.

“We don’t have anything to tan leather with!” called one of the slightly older children—Markus was his name.

“Then I’ll peel off your face and sew it back on backwards!” Gezras called back, which got another outburst of giggles and several more suggested threats called out. Gezras made note of a few of the better ones for later and retreated into the wagon, stripping off the dead dh’oine’s clothes as ae went. Those needed to be washed before they got anywhere near their space. 

Gezras stretched and yawned as ae stood in the dim interior, then kicked some of the more cushion-like objects to use as a bed together. It was good to be back.

Nobody interrupted Gezras’ nap until it was time for dinner, so ae told the whole group about the assassination over the food. The littles ae had expected to hang on every word, but Ennio and Miroslav were entranced as well, to aer mild amusement. 

“And we’ll be paid for it,” Gereon said, leaning back with a sigh. “That’s different.”

Gezras kicked him out of reflex, and things devolved into a friendly scuffle, then further into playing with the littles until they were tired enough to drop almost where they stood. The adults bundled the children into bed and sat around the dim light of the banked fire, taking tiny sips from the one bottle of vodka they had. It wasn’t about to get them drunk, but it was— social. Pleasant. It didn’t feel like it had been less than a month ago that they’d been doing this for the last time with Samraiche and Isilion. Ealonwe had come back, fresh from a raid and smutched with soot, and had kissed each of them in turn, drunk on adrenaline and success. She’d warned Gezras before she’d kissed aer, and ae had decided to let her and had even leaned in a little to enjoy the feeling of warm skin on skin.

Gezras was a little overwhelmed by the sudden longing for that again, and ae froze, bottle in hand, as ae tried to process aer unexpected desire for touch. It wasn’t as if it never popped up, but it was infrequent enough that ae wanted to know what was behind it before ae acted.

“Gezras?” Lev asked, after a moment. He was sitting next to aer and was next for the bottle.

Gezras handed the bottle off and stood up so that ae could go drape aerséy against Conell’s back. Nothing more than the letdown from emotions running high, ae suspected. Sometimes it took Gezras that way, and sometimes ae just wanted to be left alone. Conell made a surprised noise at Gezras’ sudden weight, but he relaxed again almost immediately. Lev took a sip from the bottle and passed it to Ennio, who looked confused but didn’t say anything, and Gezras closed aer eyes and listened to the heartbeat of aer sibling.

Gezras slept on top of Conell and, amusingly enough, Alcide that night and felt much steadier in the morning. Packing up took most of the morning, but there wasn’t much reason to hurry; the Aen Seidhe had a lot to do themselves. It was mid-afternoon when someone came from the village to let them know their payment was ready; Gereon and Gezras looked at each other and started the wagon moving.

There was more than Gezras was expecting, even after having half-listened to negotiations, but loading didn’t take too long, with all the hands available. There were some initial flinches as Aen Seidhe and the mutated trainees met, but everything resolved smoothly enough. One of the Aen Seidhe tried to apologize that so much of the clothing needed reworking, and Lev responded that clothes were clothes and he didn’t mind wearing skirts as long as they were warm. Gezras couldn’t help feeling a little warmer at that too. 

Eventually they got everything loaded and started off again. Gezras glanced back as the wagon neared a turn on the northern road, seeing the villagers still preparing to flee possible reprisal. They would have needed to leave, either way. At least with this one they had some revenge.

Figuring out chores again after stopping for the evening was a little exciting, especially when Gezras discovered that Miroslav and Ennio could barely plain-sew and none of the littles even knew how to do that. Ae had to walk off to go hunting after that, and when ae got back ae helped with Alcide’s impromptu lesson on sewing. After that was supper, with fresh bread for the first time in— well, over a month for ae and aer siblings, there hadn’t been many opportunities for baking with Ytanwe’s group. They had more blankets too, enough that the littles weren’t tripling up to sleep, and that the eldest of them could have some as cover.

Gezras lay under aer own blanket looking up at the stars. Ae had to admit— it wasn’t _bad_ to get paid for things. Especially things ae would have done anyway. Honestly, ae hadn’t given much thought to the future. Gezras had been focused on revenge for so long— and now ae had _responsibilities._ Responsibilities that cost money, at that. And they knew enough, about killing monsters and dh’oine, that maybe they _could_ do work like Witchers did— at very least until they figured out what they were going to do with the littles. 

Huh. Coming right back around to mutants killing monsters. Gezras could run it by the others in the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for a lot of that violence in this chapter:
> 
> Implements of torture are mentioned  
> Gezras commits three murders.  
> The nobleman ae kills chips his teeth on a stone floor, which is mentioned about twice during the sequence  
> Gezras cuts off the nobleman's hand and spends a little while doing things with it (forging a document using the nobleman's signet ring)  
> Gezras garrottes the two men who kidnapped aer into unconsciousness and then dislocates the major spinal nerve to kill them  
> Gezras also interrupts a couple having sex  
> Gezras presents the hand to Seachail like a cat giving you half a dead mouse, it's very awkward but ae just doesn't get why

**Author's Note:**

> Okay! So: 
> 
> All the violence related tags: there's a lot of general violence in this story, including Gezras being casually but not extremely violent to aer siblings (punching someone to break up an argument, etc); this is also the first time Gezras takes an assassination contract, and it's on a nobleman who's been having elven women kidnapped so that he can rape, torture, and murder them. We don't see any explicit scenes of it, but it's referenced a fair bit throughout the work. 
> 
> Disguised as another gender/misgendering/kidnapping: Gezras disguises aerséy as an elven woman and allows two men working for the serial killer nobleman to kidnap aer so that ae can get easy access to him to kill him. The kidnappers and the nobleman assume that Gezras is an elven woman, and use she/her when referring to Gezras.
> 
> Threatened Rape/Non-Con: the flunkies who the nobleman has do the kidnapping for him decide that they want to rape the latest victim before handing them over to the nobleman: Gezras would be willing to go through with this if it was necessary, but in this case it would break aer cover. Gezras uses Axii to stop the two men before any contact occurs. If you want to skip the scene, it starts after the line "The dh’oine built up a small fire and sprawled near it, grumbling discontentedly." and ends after the line "Gezras wasn't so careless as to sigh, but ae let out a careful breath of relief all the same."
> 
> Non-Consensual Drug Use: the kidnappers use a dilution of nightshade on their victims to keep them from fighting back while they're being transported; Gezras is mostly unaffected by this, due to being a mutant.


End file.
